Z coil pickup cover question - are they removable now?

[Ray Barbee Music]

I noticed they sell the covers on the site. Used to be they were most definitely not removable. They either potted the pickup with the cover on or put the cover on when the wax was still not dry. Either way, removal = dead pickup, usually even if you gave it a wax bath and re-heated the wax first.

Has anyone tried changing covers lately? I'm curious if they changed that. I'd think since they sell covers they would have, but it might be caveat emptor.

Sort of important to me since I keep finding Comanches I like with covers I don't, given the paint/pickguard color scheme.

[helle-man]

I wouldn't do it. The copper windings are completely exposed and can be damaged very easily. All it takes is a small speck of wax to adhere to the inside of the PU cover and it's all over.

Will

[Philby]

What Will says. And the same applies to the big MFD's on the ASAT Special too. I bought some black covers from the online store, but the white ones already on the MFD's were wax potted to the windings. End result? Dead pickup.

[Ray Barbee Music]

Ok that's pretty much the same experience I had with them 10 years or so ago. Wonder why they sell covers then? They ought to at least warn people to thoroughly liquify the wax before attempting it.

[Craig]

Ok that's pretty much the same experience I had with them 10 years or so ago. Wonder why they sell covers then? They ought to at least warn people to thoroughly liquify the wax before attempting it.

I pointed out this thread to Dave and he says this:

Hi Craig,

I read the posts. I guess we can add a warning, or at least a suggestion to warm the pickups up before pulling them apart. It’s not like there’s any meaningful sales of pickup covers, so we could just as easily nix them from the store. On other hand, we people are successful swapping the covers and we used to get a fair number of requests for them before we had them up on the store.

Thanks, Craig.

Dave

I also suggested that a warning and his suggestion should be listed for all of the pickup covers. All of G&L's pickups are wax potted and care needs to be
taken when removing the covers.

[Ray Barbee Music]

Instead of a warning, how about a "how to" link to the forum, and a link to a video of how to do it right in the tech section?

[Craig]

Instead of a warning, how about a "how to" link to the forum, and a link to a video of how to do it right in the tech section?

Actually, I have addressed this a couple of times. I have moved both those posts to the G&L Tech Tips sub-forum of the G&L Knowledgebase.
Search using "cover +hair +dryer" and you will find them.

[Ray Barbee Music]

Have you had success doing it that way vs. just dipping the whole thing in melted wax and letting the wax melt into the whole? The only time I tried it, I wasn't aware they were potted that way and just gently tried to remove it, moved it enough to break a winding and that was that. Dave was nice enough to send me a new one though.

[Craig]

Have you had success doing it that way vs. just dipping the whole thing in melted wax and letting the wax melt into the whole? The only time I tried it, I wasn't aware they were potted that way and just gently tried to remove it, moved it enough to break a winding and that was that. Dave was nice enough to send me a new one though.

Yes, I have had sucess doing this and last year did it on the Z-coil pickups I got from Dave, which I posted photos of, showing the innards of the Z-coil. Do an internet search and you will find many others who use this same technique.

[Salmon]

Craig you managed to open up and display the inside of a Z-coil. Were you able to reassemble it and get it working just as well as it had been before opening it up?

I just ordered a set of large MFD covers yesterday. I knew you had to heat them and a hair dryer was recommended but this really sucks. I do not want to ruin the pickups. Are changing the Z-coils worse or are all of these the same? Can you give an idea of the success rate for a technique......just a ballpark idea? I'd eat the $13 if the odds favored ruining the pickups in the process of changing the covers.

[Craig]

Craig you managed to open up and display the inside of a Z-coil. Were you able to reassemble it and get it working just as well as it had been before opening it up?

I just ordered a set of large MFD covers yesterday. I knew you had to heat them and a hair dryer was recommended but this really sucks. I do not want to ruin the pickups. Are changing the Z-coils worse or are all of these the same? Can you give an idea of the success rate for a technique......just a ballpark idea? I'd eat the $13 if the odds favored ruining the pickups in the process of changing the covers.

Yes, it worked fine after I removed and re-installed the cover.

I've only done a few pickup cover changes and have not had any issues (I might just be lucky, so far. ).
If you are not comfortable doing it yourself, you might contact a local pickup tech or company to see what they would charge to do it.

The G&L pickups which I would use extra care when changing covers are the overwound MFD's on the ASAT Junior, ASAT Super and the 20th Anniversary ASAT because
they use the standard size bobbin with the extra windings.

Just my $0.02.

[Salmon]

Thanks. I Googled and bookmarked a bunch of sources to read later. I think I will end up doing it myself. I didn't know I was going to have to unsolder and resolder them in though, only going by brief glances at pictures so far. Am I jumping ahead believing there is wax involved when reapplying the cover? Is it just warming to remove it then slipping it back on? I'll read it somewhere. If there is soldering involved I might switch the tone cap to 250k at the same time. The 500k tone cap seems to render it 98% unusable as I keep the tone knob barely away from 0 or Off.

[GeorgeB]

What Will says. And the same applies to the big MFD's on the ASAT Special too. I bought some black covers from the online store, but the white ones already on the MFD's were wax potted to the windings. End result? Dead pickup.

FWIW, the big MFD's in my ASAT Super are not potted. I understand those are special overwound builds, no stock items.